History Through Board Games

Studying history is a vital thing for all but most people find it boring. What about playing a game? At first it may seem irrelevant, but there is a historical incident and background behind some games we play. It is possible to have fun and learn new things about historical events through these games. Boarder Reivers is one of them. GMT Games published this game. It shows the border conflicts between England and Scotland during the 16^th century. This review will discuss the historical events, mechanics, communication with the theme and companion book.

An overall review of the Game Border Reivers

This game has two versions: solo and multiplayer. The main focus is on the multi-player version with up to six players. Each player represents a March. Each March is the head of one of the six major families of the border: Grey, Fenwick, Dacres, Maxwell, Kerr and Hume. The map is the Anglo-Scottish border region. The goal is to gain and increase the wealth, fame and pride of your clan. In successful combats you may gain VPs, livestock and score more in debatable areas. It has three turns which divided to seasonal segments.

Historical back ground

Learning history behind the game you play is unique but we don’t know how accurate is the game we play with the real incidents. Fortunately Border Reivers has an accurate representation of the historical events and also some details like Livestock, changing of season, battles the map with its borders. In reality people could not count on crops until the harvest so they had to take care of livestock but sometimes their neighbors stole them it was not just this, one day they had everything but the other day all the things they had would have been destroyed because of these battles. These attacks and battles were planned with some border families to steal livestock .

The game represents this in an effective way. In this case, there are meeples in the shape of livestock so, as much as you gain you get wealthier.

Historically, England and Scotland brought the system of March Law which divided the borders into east, west and middle with a warden for each of these territories they meant to bring peace but these families were in conflict with each other. Also in the game that we have six families.  Players build defense towers, castles, and build walls around their farmhouses. They should get ready for the battles: battles of Flodden Field and Solway Moss, Henry VIII’s Rough Wooing to try and force a marriage alliance, Mary Queen of Scots’ tour of the Scottish borders, and the Catholic Rising of the North. To read more click here.

The map illustrates the borders and regions in a good way.

 

 

The only thing about the accuracy is that the name of these families which are represented as the major ones because there were a lot of families which are from Reivers.

Game mechanics

There is not too much complicity in the mechanics of the game but there are a lot of meeples, dices, cubes and cards which are divided into different shapes and size. It takes around three turns and about 2 to 4 hours so it can kind of make you tired. Planning for battles according to the seasons seems to be interesting.  Management of the recourses, livestock and scores you can get in an debatable land are all clear.

Theme

Rules and mechanics are well communicated to the theme of the game. There are a lot of details in the game not just the main historical event as a major theme for the game but also the cards and map and symbols and meeples are well connected to the theme. Plans for war are made in way that would be appropriate with the season and weather and the map shows details that you think it is a real battle.

 

Companion book

The book explained everything with details. Even there are some references from books about the historical background. The explanations are clear with pictures and also the scoring system. Going through the history book. There are pictures with explanations about battles characters families and events connected to the game itself.

Conclusion

The GMT game, Border Reivers depicts the historical background of the border regions In the 16^th century  well. Details are well illustrated through the map, meeples and other elements. It is a good game to not only play and enjoy with your friends but also a good way to learn history without being bored.